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#character-encoding UTF-8
#player1 IJB Izak J. Bulten
#player2 JJB John J. Bulten
>IJB: AELOOST 8G LOO +6 6
#note 0:43 [24:17] (exchange OO 0 +4.2) As father and son face off again to conclude the round robin, IJB has a tough opening rack that doesn't have a bingo, but it promises to instead. Quackle would trade both Os (AELST +27.6) rather than score six (AEST +17.4).
>JJB: AIIMOSU G7 I.IUM +9 9
#note 1:53 [23:07] (miaou 9i 18 +13.7) Both players have just been reviewing these lists but JJB may be beginning to face the exhaustion of the long fast-paced day. Quackle finds ten placements of miaou/s to be better than ilium; but he unaccountably wants to dump both Is at once, totally unnecessary. Even miaou i5 9 leaves IOS for the same score, better than his AOS.
>IJB: AERSTTY H11 YEAST +34 40
#note 1:40 [22:37] (yatters 9i 74 +36.9) IJB writes strategy and travesty; the others are cytaster and tapestry. However, he doesn't put yatters together and decides to cash out for a quick, safe lead against a presumably bad opponent rack.
>JJB: AAELNOS J7 ANOA +10 19
#note 1:52 [21:15] (seasonal 14h 70 +46.3) JJB's fishing strategy was successful. Even though he takes a little time to search, he has never prioritized this rack (abalones and seasonal). He totally misses the playable bingo (though it will be the only one he misses all game). Row 11 is also synergistic with this rack, offering anomy (best non-bingo), loamy, amylose, and amylase for 20+.
>IJB: EEENPRT K9 PRETEEN +74 114
#note 1:57 [20:40] IJB meanwhile draws a bingo he can live with (row 14 also yields 74); he answers correctly his doubt about whether it will work unhyphenated. He also sees repented and in a pinch he might have been able to work out any of the CDRS eights.
>JJB: DEIIJLS 7I J.IL +36 55
#note 1:17 [19:58] Not realizing he missed a bingo, JJB is content to take 36 for the J and delay hope one more turn. He rightly eschews adding -ed to jail, which loses 3.6 in static value and also sets up opponent.
>IJB: EKNRSVY J13 RYE +31 145
#note 2:22 [18:18] (joky i7 43 +30.0) Since there is an accidental K premium available, the stratospheric play is joky/kop/yar 43. IJB sees he can almost form veneer in the spot where venery 40 is available (second best); he sees reeky 28 there but doubts it. He can't quite fit knaves. He also sees the potential in column M (yerks/rykes 39 at top). Correctly determining that most of the good plays use 14k, he goes perpendicular and spots ye 28 (eventually writing "awful leave" on his sheet); adding the R for 3 is enough to tip the scales for him between score and comfort level. Counterintuitively, retaining Y in a leave of 3 (even as low as veers/verse 28) is better than retaining S in a leave of 4 consonants.
>JJB: AADEIOS 8L ODEA +21 76
#note 1:29 [18:29] (daimyo 11d 24 +6.4) Row 11 is still offering the best play, daimyo 24. JJB's play is not bad, but oda l12 is one point more and AEIS is slightly better than AIS. Having missed the bingo and preparing for the risk of drawing more vowels together, JJB is settling in for the long haul and trusting to draw a bingo rack he can use.
>IJB: IKNNSVW 12K .WIN +14 159
#note 2:11 [16:07] (twink 12k 34 +26.4) IJB sees the second-best play before it is blocked, the easy winks/jails. He also writes "twink??? 34", the best play, and yet simply doesn't want to take the risk of his lead falling behind. If the reconstruction is correct, he ends up with the same "awful leave" as before, though he retains the chance of hooking S (or K!) later, which is valuable. His lead had reached 95 and he is letting it dwindle slowly but safely enough, given there are two great spots for the K.
>JJB: AAFIOSU 13M FOU +24 100
#note 1:06 [17:23] JJB finds the best static value this time, with leave only at -3.3, slightly better than foamy 26 and way ahead of sofa/twins 33. The racks are making him sigh.
>IJB: EHHKNSV G13 HE +20 179
#note 2:01 [14:06] (kune o12 56 +35.7) Now IJB goes to work on column O forming 4s that may or may not be good, even spotting sukh 45, second-best; yet he still doesn't like parting with the S. Kues 56 is third but would also have inferior leave; the winner is kune 56, which he is still getting around to learning (plural of kuna, a Croatian coin). Again he opts for the closing safety of a parallel instead, as opponent won't be able to do much in column O and is still angling for the bingo.
>JJB: AAAISUW F5 AWA +16 116
#note 2:32 [14:51] (awa 9m 18 +2) JJB makes one of the two plays better than trading (the other scores 2 more but doesn't open).
>IJB: EHKNSUV E2 HUNK +34 213
#note 1:32 [13:34] (kune o12 56 +9.1) Kune and kues are still indicated, but now his opponent has opened up a third premium K spot, which is better than sukh! So, very little value was lost in holding the K after all. IJB is slightly concerned about a C hook but is comfortable that S will not make for a hook.
>JJB: AGIPSTU F12 GAP +29 145
#note 3:42 [11:02] JJB finally gets back to a rack with majority consonants and finds himself on more comfortable ground, making a good leave out of it. He doesn't yet realize that thunk is available, but his play is better than stupa 36, as GI without an N available is sorely negative. In row 14, augites and upstages are a few points behind in value but create the turnover useful for blank-hunting.
>IJB: ?AEISVZ N6 ZE. +32 245
#note 1:04 [12:30] (seizas 15a 79 +7.3) Now IJB has secured the first blank and the Z, and writes zevias? as his rack (Zevia* is a zero-calorie stevia drink). If he follows this logic, it might lead to the sextuple scorers seizas, maizes, or baizes for 79, well worth using the blank for. Just behind them, he also eventually sees envies 39 and vinos n10 32 for good leave; and he can't quite fit visualize onto the board. Within a point of leave value of vinos is zee 32, the same score, so that's safe and also favors his A.
>JJB: EEISSTU D4 USE +17 162
#note 1:38 [8:31] (etuis 1d 30 +6.7) JJB still is not connecting the hook for the best play, etuis 30 (better than tuis, tissue, or the waiting play etui). He does see teeniest 27, quite a bit behind. He rightly determines the second-best play, which allows a big bingo leave still by playing off one S cheaply and improving a weak bingo line, but his need for points is extreme.
>IJB: ?AEISTV 2E .EAVIeST +65 310
#note 1:23 [11:07] (vastiest 15a 96 +31) And IJB has switched from Zevias* to stevia, allowing the vastiest variety including even stevias/thunk 92. He has reminded himself that hes is good, but doesn't get all the way to the best play, vastiest/gape/hes 96, inferable from the well-known vastier. With so much power, some plays do better than bingos in the 60s, namely stevia/za 50, and envies and vinos again; IJB consciously chooses heaviest over envies, but Quackle disagrees by 5.3 points. Without using rows 1 or 15, the best bingo lines are row 2 and column C, and the greater opportunity points are lost. Yet a bingo is still a bingo and JJB will need to make a massive comeback from this greatest deficit of 148.
>JJB: CEIMSTX 1A EXIST +51 213
#note 1:18 [7:13] The X awakens JJB's hook recall and he finds the best play, which begins to close the gap. He reasons CM leave should be safe; it's +.6.
>IJB: BCDGILR 2A LID +31 341
#note 0:55 [10:12] (engild 15j 30 +9.5) Many consonants remain in the pool, and IJB is feeling it. Only one spot outdoes his play, the still-fertile row 15 that allows engild/engird 30.
>JJB: ABCGLMN I7 ..B +25 238
#note 5:00 [2:13] (mung 3d 22 +.6) JJB also gets only one vowel in a big draw, and finds the second-best play in a subtle location. It is improved for 3 fewer points by the even more subtle mung/muse/en/ag.
>IJB: ?BCGRRT -BCGRT +0 341
#note 0:34 [9:38] (garb g1 8 +8.3) IJB gets all consonants with the second blank, and the bag looks better to him than his meager rack. There are several acceptable ways to place three consonants and hope for the best: garb 8, berg 6, grift 9, carb 9, etc. He elects to trade 5, lays down 4 while deciding between R and T to accompany the blank, and lays down the T to make 5, which is the better of the two choices. In static leave, though, CR? +33.5, RT? +32.6, and CRT? +32.2 are better than R? +31.9, though this is negligible and not immediately obvious. Yet if CRT? is such a great leave, even greater to get 8 points playing to it! Without the blank the trades would rank higher.
>JJB: ACGLMNO 12B CLAN. +16 254
#note 1:45 [0:28] (om f9 22 +16.3) JJB has finally come into time trouble and is not seeing openings. Besides mung, he can score easily with om f9 22, or keep his preferred 1 vowel 2 consonants with alang/za/el 19 or other plays in column O (genom 7 even has a better value due to its leave), but he has run out of time for such subtleties.
>IJB: ?DIOORT B10 DO.TOR +26 367
#note 2:19 [7:19] (lordotic b5 64 +17.9) Holding the blank, IJB can now be confident of winning all but one of 3000 simulations, so it's not too important if lordotic or idolator are overlooked here.
>JJB: BGGMNOT A14 MO +22 276
#note 0:23 [0:05] (entomb 15j 33 +30.3) In further time trouble JJB is compelled to make the starter play and does not see the line he wanted earlier that allows the nimble entomb 33.
>IJB: ?DEFIIR A7 RIFE +24 391
#note ~3:54 [~3:25] (reified a5 86 +33.8) IJB continues bingo-hunting merrily in columns 1 and 4, though reified eludes his capture. Ten consonants are unseen and he draws three of them.
>JJB: BCGGNQT G1 Q.T +13 289
#note 0:01 [0:04] (nogg n12 12, radar o5 18, cinq i1 16, vie 6b 14+8 +17) JJB has no available or potential 4-tile plays at all, and so no way to go out in two. IJB can go out with envier/enviro 36 and rad/rid 6, or rived 20 and yer/nor/rif 6 (or mor 5), etc., so it's not possible to stop that from happening. If IJB doesn't block, the best combo is cinq 16 and nogg 12, leaving 8 value to opponent; and playing nogg first blocks envier, after which IJB can only get 32 for his two words, netting -12 to JJB. Best play after qat would net -29, although that's not bad for a 1-second play.
>IJB: ?DIRRV N10 VI..s +30 421
#note ~1:55 [~1:30] (envier 15j 36, banc d11 8, rad o7 6+8 +19) IJB, also running his clock down but thoughtful of opponent's time too, selects a continuation that gets him the quick 30 but doesn't retain an out. After vinos, JJB can guarantee going out and IJB nets only 23 instead of 42.
>JJB: BCGGN D11 B.NC +8 297
#note 0:02 [0:02] On IJB's time JJB has successfully found the best play and the only out in two!
>IJB: DRR 15H .R..D +8 429
#note ~0:42 [0:48] (rid 11m 10, igg i2 7+2 +7) IJB neglects row 11, but then so does JJB.
>JJB: GG I2 .GG +7 304
#note 0:02 [0:00] (gig 11m 12 +5) IJB has considerately asked JJB if he was ready to make his final play, which he was, but then JJB slightly fumbles the tiles and has to use his grace second to correctly adjust his preference of igg over gig 7 as the rules require.
>JJB: (R) +2 306
#note IJB availed himself of many good opportunities, saw a few more that he wasn't ready to put down (reeky, twink, sukh, hes, thunk), and had a few that went unnoticed. JJB struggled with heavy vowel imbalance then heavy consonant imbalance, and could have claimed an "unwinnable" game if he had not missed the bingo of seasonal; opportunities like miaou, daimyo, entomb, and cinq also evaded him given the day being long. Yet both players were able to score their biggest opportunities well enough. Known points available: JJB 24, IJB 57. Overall points available: JJB 144.3, IJB 276.1.
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